Bridging the Gap on Health Awareness | Candace Smith
Candace Smith has a heart of gold, overflowing with the desire to help those around her. As the oldest of three, Candace has always been a caring person; even as a young child, she gave what little she had to those who had less. Candace raised her nephews after the death of her brothers, while also being a young entrepreneur - starting her own tax company and wig company. In 2021, Candace created the C Institue, a non-profit organization, so she can better support the well-being of others without exhausting her personal resources.
In addition to support from Let’s Choose Love, Candace has several other community sponsors working with the C Institute, helping bring her give-back dream to life. Candace has an incredible community supporting her dream from friends, family, sorority sisters, and even complete strangers that are excited to help!
Can you describe your project and what you hope to achieve from it?
“The project is called Bridging the Gap on Health Awareness. What we are trying to achieve is to provide the community with counselors, therapists, and financial help because life is hard. We want to be able to tell people it is okay to talk to coaches and therapists, ok to put your health first, ok to go through things in life, and okay to have help. We want to give back to our community. At the event, we will also have personal care products, covid testing, HIV testing, blood pressure checks, doctors, etc., so community members can talk to these people without being charged. We will also be giving away gift cards to families. We will have food, games, cotton candy, and snow cones for the kids. We are also going to have five guest speakers to talk about their journey and how they feel now, coming to health awareness. The event is going to be really nice for the community.”
Why is this project important to you?
“Because I love to give back. I don’t know too many people within my circle who do things like this. I wanted to be the one to open up that door. It feels good to give back, and it is a blessing to be able to do this. I want to share that blessing with other people.”
What impact do you expect this project to have?
“I want to have a lot of impact. Where I am from, it is not the best neighborhood to be in, and I feel like the generation growing up behind me doesn’t have the chances and opportunities I had. If I am giving back, it allows other people to step in and give back too. It provides younger adults the opportunity to learn and have an opportunity to do something too.”
Candace plans to serve food and provide services to at least 150 people at the September 4th Bridging the Gap event and hopes to have many more community members join. The C Insitute strives to help anyone focusing on providing services to women and families because “women tend to have more stress and tend to carry the burden a lot more.” But Candace wants her community to know that Bridging the Gap will provide services for anyone and won’t turn anyone away.
What are your plans for the project/your journey in the future?
“I didn’t think I would be here a year ago. By winning the Let’s Choose Love grant, it motivated me to get going. Done is better than perfect, and perfect never gets done. Dr. Hackett's group is full of motivation, and we sometimes push things off, but this grant motivated me to just do it.
Hopefully, next year we will be able to host more events, not just based on health awareness. We are also hosting a women’s conference in November in Dallas. I want to become a speaker at other events and partner with other businesses. I plan to start with a few cities and hope to go to all other states in a few years. For the next year, I will focus on Dallas and Michigan.”
Candace is currently in Dallas, Texas, working to establish a branch of the C Institute there.
Is there anything else you would like people to know?
“Our event is going to be amazing, and you definitely don’t want to miss out! There is going to be a lot of information, and it is going to be an amazing experience. There’s a lot of free stuff to give away, and there’s coaching if you want to start or build a business. Bridging the Gap on Health Awareness is just the beginning, so come out and be a part of that!”
Bridging the Gap on Health Awareness will be a free event open to the public on September 4th from 2 - 5 PM at Palmer Park in Detroit, MI.
